Congratulations, Mr Karimov!

A letter penned in admiration of Uzbekistan’s wily president, on the eve of his visit to Brussels.

On the eve of your first official visit to Brussels in years, President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan, you deserve high praise. You have played the long game expertly and outmanoeuvred European foreign-policy makers so deftly that you have become a model of how to shrug off international pariah status.